Have A Little Faith In Me
by Aerilyn
Summary: All Hope wanted was to have a normal senior year, with prom, graduation, and college visits. That is, until a strange man in a blue box crashed into her life with a secret about her that is anything but normal.
1. Author's Note

Hello. My name is Aerilyn "TimeyWimeyLady", and this is my second Doctor Who story. I am not finished with my first story yet, entitled A Doctor by Any Other Name, but I only have a couple more chapters. Please check that one out if you want. I just want to thank you for taking the time to read this

I am very passionate about Doctor Who, and I love to write. I figure that I would take a little time to explain the time frame of this story, because it might seem a bit confusing to some. As everyone knows, the Master went insane before the TIme War and fled, but in this story the Master was perfectly sane until after the Time War. He was also best friends with the Doctor until after the Time War. There might be a few elements in this story that seem confusing to the reader, but let's face it-Doctor Who is riddled with plot holes, but we that love the show can overlook those things. Anything that confuses you, please feel free to message me about it. Thank you!


	2. Prologue: Running, Always Running

There was nothing but the sounds of explosions. Soil and debris crashing down upon them-the rain of war. Fire burning so close to them that their clothes, the ends of their hair were turning black and crinkling. The acrid, horrific smell of burning flesh assaulted their nostrils, while the thick, black coils of smoke forced their ways down the throats of the three figures, running blindly through the trees, running away...

"Come on. We can stop later I promise. Just a little further!" The man with the black hood over his head had to scream over the sounds of the exploding ground behind them. His fingers were intertwined in the fingers of the little eight year old girl that ran beside him.

The third figure ran slightly behind them, not daring to look back to the scene that he knew was playing behind them as they ran. His home planet-their home planet-Gallifrey, collapsing all around them, the screams of his family burning through his ears, hotter even that the fires that raged towards the orange sky.

Burning, falling, dying. That is what the three of them were trying to outrun-death.

The young girl was starting to grow weary of all the running. She slowed-all she wanted was to rest a moment, just a moment and then she would be able to run again...

The hooded man scooped her into his arms, clutching her to his chest as he looked back to the other man. "How much further?" Even though he was screaming at the top of his lungs, he could barely be heard.

"Just past those trees!" The second man pointed ahead, and just as soon as the words dripped from his tongue, a terrifying sound rang over the trees...

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

A group of Daleks poured over the trees, and the three were forced to drop down into the underbrush. Tears sprang to the young girl's eyes as she buried her face into the hooded man's chest. She had heard stories about these Daleks, but this was the first time she had been forced to experience them herself.

"Shhh. Be a good girl-I won't let anything happen to you, I promise." He spoke in a soothing whisper to the little girl, and rested his chin atop her head, looking over at the second man.

They had came without warning, shattering the silence and the peace. They should have been prepared...but in all honesty, how do you prepare for something like this?

The two men had locked eyes but a mere moment. Though neither one of them wanted to admit it, they could both see it in the other.

Fear-it was creeping into their faces, etching lines across their cheeks and crinkling their eyes.

But they had been lucky-so very lucky. The Daleks hadn't spotted them hiding in the underbrush. The three of them waited in fearful silence for them to pass, and for just a second the second man closed his eyes.

_We should stop them_. That was his thought-those Daleks were going to kill someone, and he was allowing that to happen.

He lifted his hand, almost cried out in anger at them, but when his eyes landed on the younger girl, crying softly in the arms of the other man, he stopped. He had made a promise...a promise that he had no choice but to keep.

The child lifted her head just a little, peering at him, then extended her hand to him. He smiled-even here, hiding in the dirt and filth while his planet was being torn down all around him...

She had drawn a smile out of him.

He wrapped his fingers around hers for just a minute, the both of them not saying a word. She would survive-even if the two men were wiped from the face of Gallifrey, she would live on.

"I think they're gone..." The hooded man whispered. He stood with every intention of holding onto the little girl, but she let go of him instead.

"No daddy-I can run now. You don't have to hold my hand anymore."

Hearing her words, the hooded man gasped and brought the back of his hand to his mouth. He felt the tears in his eyes, but he blinked them away. No, he wouldn't cry today. Today was a happy day...today was the day he got to see his daughter live.

"Alright then darling." Those words were said with a mixture of pride and sorrow as the three of them moved deeper under the trees. They tried to not to run, but still moved at a quickening pace.

From behind a thick copse of trees, a large blue object barely protruded out, but it was enough for them to see it.

The hooded man turned to the other man, grabbing his forearm and looking at him squarely in the eye.

"You take her into the future-I don't care where, as long as it isn't here. Just get in that blue box and fly far, far away from here." He fought back against the tears that were threatening to spill over. He clenched his teeth, balling his other hand into a fist.

"She'll be safe, I promise." The other man whispered to him, gripping his shoulder firmly but reassuringly.

The hooded man only nodded, turning away from him and kneeling on the ground in front of the little girl. "I love you, very much. Do you know that?" His voice was barely above a hoarse whisper as he took both of her hands in his.

"I love you too daddy."

For a moment the hooded man just looked at her, took her in one last time. "Then you have to go with him, and listen to him, and do everything he tells you." He moved just a bit closer to her, resting his forehead against hers. "Even if it seems too hard. You just have to trust us, ok?"

"Ok daddy."

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, squeezing her to him for a few minutes. The other man slid his hands into his pockets and turned back to look where they had just run from. All that running, and here they were...about to do more.

The hooded man broke reluctantly away from her, and his friend handed her a small silver key on a chain. "You see that big blue box? You can help me drive if you want."

She nodded enthusiastically, but hesitated to move. Though she was only eight years old, she had a feeling this would be the last time she got to see her daddy.

The other man took her hand then, and as they walked toward the big blue box, the hooded figure called to him. When he turned, her father pointed to her wrist.

The man nodded-he knew what her father wanted him to do.

As the door to the big blue police box closed, the hooded man dropped to his knees. He surrendered to his tears, letting them fall freely now, spilling onto the ground in front of him.

_Trust me, darling. I love you..._


	3. Hope

"Don't forget-chemistry exam on Friday! Study pages 238-269 in your textbooks!" Professor Davison had to yell over the sounds of shuffling chairs and murmuring students as the bell sounded.

The teacher just threw his hands up in defeat as he sat back down at his deck, rubbing his temples with the tips of his fingers and a slight smile on his face. Not that he blamed them for running out of the door as fast as humany possible. It was the end of the school day after all, and though he had a passion for chemistry, he understood that it was not everyone else's cup of tea.

He began shuffling papers around on his desk, paperclipping them together and packing them into a old, worn leather brief case. It was the same briefcase that his mother had bough him when he graduated from college, and he still cherished it to this day. Granted, it wasn't a sleek and as nice as it once was all those years ago, and some of the other teachers did in fact tease him about carrying it, but it was a constant reminder of his mother and his accomplishments in life.

As he snapped the brass locks on the briefcase and dusted off the desk, he heard a noise come from the adjoining lab. The classroom was connected to the lab by way of a door between the two, and it appeared someone had left the door ajar. Mr. Davison walked across the scuffed tile floor-it was quite possibly a janitor coming in to start the after school cleaning.

Mr. Davison poked his head in, but didn't see any of the janitors. Instead there sat one of his students, Hope Dixon, sitting at one of the lab tables in the far corner. She had papers and folders sprawled out in front of her, and was busy punching numbers furiously into a calculator-her growling indicating that she was obviously growing frustrated by something.

When she looked up and saw her teacher she gasped in surprise. "Oh...sorry Mr. Davison." She tried to straighten up the papers as he walked toward her.

"You do realize that it's the end of the day, Miss Dixon?" He sat on the edge of the lab table that was directly in front of her, looking down at the papers with various scribbles of writing scrawled across them.

"I know sir-sorry, I'm just trying to finish up these calculations..." She banged on a few more keys, then slammed her pencil down and dropped her head into her hands, feeling utterly defeated by a bunch of numbers.

"Mind if I take a look?" Hope shook her head, still not looking up as he picked up the piece of paper that she had been furiously writing on. The hand writing was almost illegible, but he managed to navigate his way through the stray pencil marks and the barely erased mistakes.

"I know I can figure it out Mr. Davison-all of the formulas are right, but for some reason the numbers don't seem to be adding up. I've went over them a hundred times." She looked up to see him still skimming over the pages.

He finally dropped the paper back in front of her with a small chuckle. "Teleportation and time travel-don't you think those topics are a little complex for a senior science fair project, Hope?" He arched a brow at her. If one thing was true it was that Hope never took the easy way out of anything.

She pushed back from the lab table and leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "Yeah, I guess it is a bit heavy." Hope couldn't help herself-she had a passion for science. Chemistry and biology for the most part, but over the past few months she found herself wanting to learn all she could about quantum physics, of all things. She had started going to the library, reading up on some of the basic theories. She had found one particular book by Einstein-it had been a hard read for her, but with the help of Mr. Davison she started to grasp some of the concepts. Time travel was what struck her the most-the possibilty of going back to the past to experience the things that she had only read about in the history books, or fast forwarding into the future to see what was yet to come. It fascinated her, and she had found some of Einstein's possible formulas and ideas about it, giving her this over the top, crazy, impossible idea that perhaps she could figure out the secret to time travel for her senior science fair project.

"You think it's ridiculous, don't you?" She asked him.

"What's ridiculous?"

She gestured at the papers. "This whole time travel thing. Einstein himself couldn't figure it out, and here I am thinking that a eighteen year old high school kid can somehow figure it all out." She laughed at herself just thinking about it.

But Mr. Davison wasn't laughing. He simply shook his head. "Hope, I think if anyone can figure out time travel, it's you. You're meant for greater things that just the four walls of a high school chemistry classroom. But not today-so pack up and let's get out of here. Even geniuses like us need a break every once in a while." He gave her a small smile as he started to pick up her papers and stack them in a pile.

"Thanks Mr. Davison." If there was anyone who believed in her, it was him. She shoved the papers in a black folder and dropped it in her worn, grey backpack. She slung it over her shoulder and followed Mr. Davison out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Hope opened the door to her small, silver car in the student parking lot at the same moment her cell phone ran. She flipped it open and ducked into the car, lowering herself into the front seat.

"Hey mom."

She placed the key in the ignition and cranked the car, making sure to look behind her for other cars, though by this time the parking lot was nearly empty.

"Where are you at? School let out nearly half an hour ago. Is everything alright?"

Hope rolled her eyes as she listened to her mom-that woman could worry about anything.

"I'm fine mom. I just stayed after a little while to work on a project. I'm leaving now-be home in a few minutes."

"Alright then sweetheart. Drive carefully. I love you."

"Love you too mom." Hope laughed to herself as she closed her phone, throwing it in the passenger seat as she pulled out onto the main road.

Eversince she was a little girl, her parents had always had this overarching fear for her, which she really couldn't blame them for. She had been in a car accident about ten years ago-a pretty severe one. Her parents told her that she had laid in the hospital for a couple of months, with severe brain damage. Hope didn't remember any of it-she actually didn't remember her life at all before the accident. She couldn't remember the early years of her childhood, what her favorite toys were, her first three years of school, her birthday parties-it was as if her entire life started the day she came hom from the hospital after the accident.

Though sometimes she would have dreams-strange, lucid dreams that she was somewhere else, though she didn't know exactly where it was. Only that most of the dreams were horrifying-she was running, running from the fire and smoke, surrounded by trees. When she would wake up, however, she could never remember what exactly she was running away from-in her dreams she was always too afraid to look back. There were always two people with her, though she couldn't remember their faces either. The one thing that she could remember the most is a feeling of complete trust, a calmness and a peace that intermingled with the fear that she always felt, like no matter how close the fire and the smoke grew, those two faceless people that she couldn't seem to remember would keep her safe. Her parents attributed the odd dreams to her car accident, which in a way made sense to her.

It only took a few minutes until she was turning left into her driveway. She shifted the gear into park and twisted the key from the ignition, leaning back and sighing as the car died. She never got out immediately-she always sat for a few minutes, in the quiet of the parked car, with the sunlight beaming down through the windshield. All those calculations and numbers danced around in her head, forever taunting her and laughing at her, knowing that she was crazy to think that she would figure them out.

She grabbed her grey backpack that had fallen into the floor on the passenger side, and pulled out the black folder from its bowels. She glanced down at the numbers and formulas that were written hodge-podge across the pages-maybe another look was all that it would take...

Nope. She still couldn't make them all come together the way that in her mind she knew they should. She tossed the papers back into the passenger side seat and leaned against the back of the driver seat, closing her eyes for a moment...

"Hope-is everything alright?"

She was startled by the sound of someone tapping the glass of her window and grabbed the steering wheel in front of her as her eyes jerked open.

"Yeah-just resting my eyes for a moment." It was her mother, who had seen her sitting in the car and wanted to make sure everything was alright.

"Well come on inside-you've got homeworkr to start on, don't you?" Her mother waited until Hope unlocked the door, then grasped the handle and opened it for her daughter.

"Yeah mom-I'm coming." Hope grabbed her backpack and slammed the car door shut. Her mother was a teacher once-she still had old photos of the children that were in her classes, and recieved letters in the mail every once in a while from some of them. She loved to teach, but after Hope's accident her mother found it best if she stayed home, just in case Hope had some sort of "spell" as she called it. Hope could see the pain in her eyes, every once in a while, when she would pick up those old photos from the mantle above the fireplace. She longed to be back in the classroom, doing what she loved.

"Did you see on the news? The United Kingdom just elected their new Prime Minister a couple of days ago. A bit young if you ask me..." Her mother opened the front door and closed it behind Hope.

"Yeah-Harold Saxon. I've gotta write up a paper on him for my government class." Hope dropped her backpack and collapsed onto the couch. All the numbers had started to give her a headache.

"A paper on him for an American goverment class?" Her mother arched a brow as she came back into the living room with a plate of sandwiches she had made while Hope was on her way home.

"Yeah-my teacher want us to be familiar with governments of other countries, not just in America."

Her mother nodded her head while she sipped from her dark coffee mug. "That seems like a good idea. What are you going to write about?"

As if on cue, the news report switched from that of a eight car pile up on the expressway to a video of Harold Saxon, waving from behind a podium with his wife, Lucy Saxon.

"I don't know-guess I better start doing some research. Thanks for the sandwich mom." Hope wiped her mouth with her sleeve and snatched her backpack from the ground, dragging herself up the stairs and to her room.

Though she loved science, politics and government was definitely not her thing. She switched on her computer, forcing herself to start on this paper. She forced herself to put off her time travel project for a couple of hours so she could at least get a good start on this government paper.

She clicked her fingers aross the keys, typing "Harold Saxon" into google. Up popped page after page of photos of him-the young Prime Minister with blonde hair. Hmmm, her mother was right-he did look a bit young. Hope leaned in closer to look at his photos. Though she had never met the man in her life, he seemed vaguely...familiar to her, like someone you bump into on the street and for some reason you can remember their face years later. Why was she feeling like that-of course she had never bumped into the Prime Minister of the United Kindgom on the street. What a ridiculous thought.

"Ok Hope-you can't put this off any longer." She figured her brain was just trying to figure out more ways for her to procrastinate, so she clicked on a random link and started to read the long list of facts about Harold Saxon.

As she got to the middle of the article, she sighed. This was going to be a very long night.


	4. How Many People Will You Watch Die?

_**I really hate to do this, but this is going to be my last chapter until I get some reviews. I hate when other writers do this, but honestly this is my third chapter and I have gotten nothing. It's funny-my last Doctor Who story got about 80 reviews, but this one has gotten nothing. I'm not trying to be arrogant, but it is really heart breaking when a writer pours all of their heart and soul into a story and no one reads it.**_

Together they huddled, fighting for every bit of warmth the burning ash heap in front of them could offer. No one spoke...what was there to say, anyway?

Martha Jones lifted her head, letting her eyes dart between the two men that sat on either side of her. She had trusted the Doctor. He always had a plan, always had an escape for them. But this time...this time was different.

England was now held in the palm of Harold Saxon's hand, the current prime minister. At least, the rest of the world knew him as Harold Saxon. As for the three of them, they knew the truth. He wasn't this glorious figure that the rest of England was counting on him to be. He wouldn't lead England through its next Golden Age. He would let them all down, but it would be a bigger let down than any of those humans out there could ever imagine...

"Doctor, what do we do?" Captain Jack Harkness interrupted the silence. Like Martha, he had always expected the Doctor to know what to do.

The Doctor just shrugged hs shoulders, not even bothering to look up from the ground. "What can we do? We run...we keep running."

Even their savior, the almighty Doctor, had been defeated it seemed. Martha moved her eyes from the Doctor to Jack, then down to her own hands. She hated the silence-it was just the right thing needed to drag her mind through places that she didn't want to go.

Her mother, her sister, her father...all the people that she loved had been ripped away from her. She didn't know where they were, or what was happening to them. She sould still remember her mother's words, tumbling through her mind. _That Doctor...hes's dangerous. There's always trouble where he goes..._

Martha stood up so suddenly that her chair fell back. "We have to do something," she growled through clenched teeth. "We can't just sit here."

"And just what do you propose we do, Martha Jones?" The Doctor asked calmly as he found her eyes.

"I...I don't know, but I can't just run anymore!" Her voice softened as her eyes began to unexpectedly grow wet with tears. "He's got my family, Doctor."

"I know Martha." The Doctor let his eyes fall back down to the concrete below his feet. He knew they were looking at him, expecting him to come up with something clever and put things back together the way they were supposed to be.

Only this time, it wasn't that easy.

"Then tell us what to do," Martha pleaded with him as she knelt on the ground at his feet.

"I am so, so sorry, Martha Jones." He simply had no answers for her, as much as he wished he could tell her something.

Martha stared at him in shocked disbelief. He had never given up before. She felt herself beginning to tremble, not entirely sure if it was from anger or fear, but guessing from a little bit of both.

Without another word she stood to her feet and started out across the cold cement, leaving the warmth of the fire to greet the stark chill of the air.

"Where are you going?" Jack called out to her as he stood from his chair. "Martha, it isn't safe to go wandering around-"

She turned on her heel so abruptly that Jack's words caught in his throat. "If he isn't going to help me, then I'm going to have to find them on my own!" She spat her words at Jack as she pointed a finger accusingly at the Doctor. "I'm their daughter-I'm their only hope!"

_I'm their daughter-I'm their only hope._ Her last statement rattled around in the Doctor's brain, stirring up memories that he had tried his hardest to forget. Forgetting was hard, however, no matter how much he tried to stuff those memories into boxes and hide them away in his head.

_Hope._

Hope. If it was one thing they they needed-that everyone on the whole planet needed at the moment-it was hope.

"There is one thing that I haven't tried..." Martha thought the Doctor was about to finish his thought, but he ended it just as suddenly as he had started it.

"Well what is it?" She asked. "Whatever it is, I'm willing to do whatever you tell me."

"It...isn't as easy as that, Martha, and it might not even work-"

"If there's even a slight chance it might work, Doctor," Jack interjected, "then we've got no choice but to try it."

The Doctor thought for a moment. The things he was about to say to Martha and Jack were things that he hadn't spoken about in a very long time, things that he had buried deep that he was now excavating from his hearts. But in the end Jack was right-if there was a chance, the Doctor would take it.

"The Master-he wasn't always like this. I wasn't the only one that the Time War took things from-he had a family, just like me. He couldn't save them all, but there was one particular person that got to live that day...his daughter."

Gasping, Martha looked across at Jack, who was so focused on the Doctor that he didn't even notice her.

"So where is she?" Jack asked.

"Oh she's here, on Earth...in America."

"And why haven't you spoken of her before-you were the last of your kind, yet there was another out there all this time, right here on Earth?"

"Like I said-it's not as easy as that, Martha Jones." The Doctor stopped speaking, as if he was thinking for a moment. "She's lost everything that made her a Time Lord. She's human now..."

Martha began to piece everything together. "You mean, like you were? When the Family of Blood was chasing you? And Professor Yana? Her Time Lord side is in a fob watch?"

When the Doctor nodded, Martha suddenly lit up. "That's it-we get her fob watch, get her to open in, and then she'll help us stop her father!"

The Doctor gave her a sideways look as he arched an eyebrow. "You really don't understand the meaning of the word "easy", do you Martha?"

"What do you mean?"

The Doctor sighed, seemingly out of frustration. How was he supposed to explain this? "Let me put it to you this way-The Master has the fob watch, has not the slightest bit of recollection that he even has a daughter, and I doubt it is going to be a simple task to get her to come with us. Like I said-it might not even work-"

"But what choice do we have?" Jack spoke up, unsually quiet through all of the Doctor's explaination.

It grew quiet again, with each of them trying not to look at the others. Choices-it seemed that was the theme of the evening. For Martha, it all stemmed from her choice to travel with the Doctor.

"Jack's right, you know," she finally whispered. The Doctor nodded-he had known it was the only choice for a while now, but was he willing to do it? He would be breaking a promise, and completely erasing the life of a human girl.

He would essentially be killing her, and how many more people could he watch die because of him?

So there it was again-that same theme that kept creeping up. What choice would he make?

_Just get in that blue box and fly far, far away from here._

_She'll be safe, I promise._

The Doctor suddenly turned to Jack. "Jack, if we're going to find her, then we'll need your vortex manipulator."

Jack stood to attention with an ecstatic smile. "Anything you need-when do we leave?"

But Jack's smile was quickly wiped away by the Doctor's next words. "'We' are not going anywhere-Martha and I will be the ones to find her. I need to stay here and keep out of sight.

"What? Doctor you can't be serious-"

"Listen to me, very closely," The Doctor's tone turned serious as he cut his eyes toward Jack. "This girl knows nothing of who she is-who she used to be. What I am about to do is something very serious, and I don't want her to feel overwhelmed. You stay here, and hopefully we won't be gone too long."

Begrudgingly Jack ripped the vortex manipulator from his wrist and handed it to the Doctor, who nodded curtly at him.

"Allons~y, Martha Jones," The Doctor said as he turned to face her, with a smile cracked across his face for the first time tonight.

"Do you know where you're going?" She asked as she grabbed his upper arm, getting ready for the headache she knew was about to happen. Just one of the joys of travelling without the use of an actual time machine.

"Trust me, Martha." With those words, the Doctor punched in a few buttons...

Jack waved as they departed, then crossed his arms to his chest. "Good luck," he whispered under his breath. "We're going to need it."


	5. On Our Way

_He grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her hard out the door. He hadn't meant to hurt her. No, he was never violent with her. _

_"Run! Don't look back!" The hooded man screamed at her, but she could barely hear him. All she could see was his mouth moving, but his words got lost somewhere in the sound of all the others. _

_She looked around for someone else-a woman who she seemed to barely remember. Why couldn't she remember her? It was then that he snatched her hand and she was forced to either run or be drug through the red grass._

_"Where is she? We can't leave her!" _

_She hadn't noticed the tears that streamed down his face, or the fact that he refused to answer her question. Running, just keep running..._

_They had descended like a swarm of insects-metal monsters with cold, clipped voices, destroying everything._

_And that was when she saw that woman-a woman who she barely remembered. She was lying in the grass with her arm stretched out, like she was reaching for someone...someone who got there too late..._

_She screamed with every ounce of breath she could hold in her tiny eight year old lungs, so overwhelmed. She was being pulled under, and instead of fighting it she just want to stay there and just let it take her. _

_But he wasn't going to let that happen._

_"Don't look at her," he whispered as he pulled her to his chest. If she couldn't run, then he would run for her. This time, however, she noticed his tears._

"Hope! Hope!"

Hope's eyes flew open as she convulsed, feeling arms wrap around her and pulling her tight. For a moment she didn't know where she was-the four blue walls of her bedroom looked so alien to her.

"Where is she?" She was in a panic, thrashing around trying to look for that woman. Her cheeks were wet-had she been crying?

"There's no one here, darling. You've had another nightmare. There's no one here but me and your father." A voice, a soothing voice-and something sliding through her hair. It was her mother-she was hugging her frightened daughter to her, and stroking her hair softly as she whispered in her ear.

"A nightmare?" It took Hope a moment to come back to her bedroom, away from the screaming and the fire and shadowy figures that she could never remember.

"I was making breakfast and heard you screaming." Her mother broke her embrace, but still held Hope by her shoulders. "You were yelling about a woman. You didn't want to leave her." Hope's mother looked at her daughter with worry in her eyes, at which Hope just laughed.

"I'm fine mom. They're just stupid dreams-I can hardly remember them when I wake up anyway." Hope tried to smooth down the tangled mop that was her hair as she tried to soothe her mother's fears. No need for senseless worry-dreams never hurt anyone.

Her mother lingered for a moment, enclosing her hand over Hope's hand. "Well...breakfast is about ready. Come and eat."

Even after her mother left the room, it took a few moments before Hope could pull herself from the bed. She gathered the comforter in her hands, staring at the pale blue of her bedroom wall. She knew they were just nightmares...but they were always so vivid, except for the faces. It was always the faces that she could never remember.

She slid slowly from the bed, not in any sort of hurry. It was Saturday, afterall. As she reached for the hair brush atop her dresser, her eye caught her bookbag that she had thrown carelessly to the floor. She had stayed up late into the night, trying to finish up her Harold Saxon term paper. It was due Wednesday, and despite the hours she tried to put in, she had only gotten a page or two of it finished.

But that didn't matter today, because today she was going to the library to work on her science fair project. She threw her hair up into her usual pony tail and grabbed a pair of worn jeans and a sweater from her closet.

When she finally made it down stairs, the smell of sizzling bacon and fresh coffee greeted her. Her father sat at the small round dining room table, sipping coffee from a cracked mug.

"Hey dad-do you mind if I borrow your laptop to take to the library today?" Hope asked from the bowels of the refrigerator as she searched for a carton of orange juice.

"Nope-just take care of it," her father answered. "It's in my study."

"Thanks dad." She gave up her search, resigned to the fact that there was no more orange juice.

"Honey come in here quick-listen to this!" Her mother called from the living room, her voice laced with excitement and a bit of confusion. Hope's father got up from the table with a peculiar look on his face and stood of to the side of the living room as his wife pointed to the television.

Hope leaned in the doorway, watching as Harold Saxon's face was emblazoned across the screen. He was in the middle of addressing the public, but it didn't take long to understand what he was saying.

"Oh Annette, you really believe all this alien nonsense?" Her father laughed as he sat in his recliner, crossing his arms to his chest. Saxon was speaking about all the "alien enounters" that had been plaguing the U.K. these past few years-encounters that had been deemed all hoaxes or hallucinations.

"You saw it on the television, Jason!"

"Oh come on Annette, even Parliament said they were all hoaxes. Some pranks by a bunch of teenagers. You've seen the special effects they have these days-they can do anything on the television!"

"Shhhh!" Her mother waved off her husband as Saxon began to speak again, this time of a new alien species that had contacted him.

"Oh this is sensationalism garbage, Annette!" Even Hope had to laugh at her mother, who always invested herself in bigfoot sightings and UFO sightings and various conspiracy theories.

"They're called the Toclafane," Annette said, repeating what Harold Saxon had just announced, her eyes glued to the television. "And Mr. Saxon is gong to try and communicate with them."

"That's just Saxon trying to garnish some support by making fantastical claims," Jason muttered as he got up from his chair. "Politics is politics, no matter what country it is. Come tomorrow when he tries to "commune" with them, there will be no aliens, and he'll have some excuse for it."

Hope just shook her head as her parents gently bickered back and forth about the existence of aliens. When she got back from the study with the laptop bag, they were still at it.

"Bye guys!" She laughed, waving behind her as she closed the door.

* * *

><p>Martha shouted out as she fell to her knees, knocked off her feet by the unbalanced time travel. "I'll never get used to that," she muttered as she rose shakily to her feet, massaging her temples with her hands.<p>

"Well I think it's invigorating!" The Doctor laughed as he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around.

"Where are we?" They were on some street lines with houses, with trees swaying in the yards. Nothing looked strange, but it didn't look familiar either.

"Welcome to the United States of America, Martha Jones!" The Doctor swept his hands around in a welcoming gesture. He knew where they were-the houses had changed a bit here and there, but it was the same neighborhood.

"And you know for a fact she's here?"

"Yes-well, no-well, yes-well, this was where I brought her."

"What do you mean this is where you brought her?" Martha's gaze darkened as she looked at him. "There's something your not telling me, Doctor..."

He only sighed. He knew she wouldn't be satisfied until she knew the whole story. She was a doctor, after all. "Follow me, Martha Jones."

She walked beside him for a few moments, waiting for him to explain everything to her. She hated his secrets-she got that there were things she wouldn't understand, but she didn't want to be kept in the dark.

"The Master and I-we were childhood mates." He stopped for a moment, fighting with himself whether or not he should tell Martha. "Koschei-his name was Koschei, back then. We would play in the grass, chase each other. He was my best friend. We grew up, had other adventures, had families of our own. Then they came...the Daleks, and thus began the Time War..."

As he spoke, he kept his eyes on the road. It was almost as if he had forgotten that Martha was there, and perhaps he did. She didn't say anything, because maybe he needed to forget she was there. Maybe that was the only way he could return to those old memories...

"The Master had just one daughter-Hope. He made me promise to take her away from Gallifrey, to keep her safe. I agreed-I had already lost my whole family by that time, and Hope was like a daughter to me as well. I thought if I could just save one, that would be enough."

"So you brought her here?" Martha whispered, almost afraid to speak.

He nodded, still not looking at her. "She used the Chameleon Arch and became human, but I didn't bring her here. The TARDIS did-used her psychic link to find the perfect family for Hope. She landed right on this street."

The Doctor came to an abrupt stop, in front of a white house with hunter green shutters.

"She landed right in front of this house."


	6. A Name Etched in Gold

There was nothing particularly impressive about the house. It seemed clean enough, painted white with hunter green shutters and a door with frosted glass in an oval shape. The grass was clipped, and the only tree in the yard was right in front of the house, adorned with large-petaled white flowers. All-in-all, it was very...

Ordinary.

"Do you know for certain she still lives here?" Martha asked.

"No-not at all. She could be on another continent for all I know. But since we're here, why not give it a shot?" He exaggerated his smile, but as he began to walk down the driveway Martha grabbed his arm.

"So what're you going to do? Just knock on the door and tell her she's really an alien and that she has to come with us to stop her dad, who just so happens to be the Prime Minister?"

"What-you don't think that plan would work?"

Martha shook her head in frustration. "How old would she be-right now?"

The Doctor scratched the back of his head, trying to think. Time was a big ball of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff, so while in the TARDIS exact lengths of time were difficult to determine. "Weeellll, in Earth years I suppose...seventeen or eighteen, perhaps?"

Martha nodded-just the answer she was hoping for. "Let me try to talk to her first. She might be more at ease talking to another girl closer to her age than some bloke from another planet. You stay here."

"But-"

"For once just listen to me, please?" Marth arched a brow at him, and he eventually gave into her with a nod of his head.

She left him in the street as she headed down the driveway. She was nervous-she didn't know what she was going to say either. People that were drug into the Doctor's world didn't leave without a few bumps and bruises.

But she couldn't let worries like those get in the way, not when the whole world was at stake.

Not when he had her parents.

She reached out to ring the bell, and just as she heard the sound of the latch being unlocked she realized she didn't even know what excuse she was going to give for being there.

A woman opened the door, but just enough that she could peek out. "Yes, can I help you hon?"

"Um-yes-does Hope live here?" Oh, just great Martha.

"She does-can I ask who you are?"

Without giving it any amount of thought, Martha blurted out the first thing to come to her mind. "I just moved here-I'm new to Hope's school. I was just going to ask her about-um- a class."

Despite the obvious lie, the woman must have felt more at ease becuase she opened the door as wide as it could go, offering Martha a warm smile. "Well Martha, I'm Annette, Hope's mother. Unfortunately Hope isn't here at the moment. She left about an hour ago to go to the library. Would you like me to give you a ride-it's only a couple of blocks away."

Martha felt a mixture of relief and frustration flood through her. Even though they would have to go search for her, at least she wasn't too far away. "Oh-no, thanks. I'm pretty sure I can get there on my own-you said it's just a few blocks away?"

"Yes hon-go to the end of the street and make a left on Carter Street, then go about two blocks. It's got a magnolia tree in front of it just like in our yard."

Martha jotted her directions down in her mind. "Thank you Miss Annette."

"Your welcome hon-and welcome to the neighborhood!" She waved Martha off, then closed the door behind her.

If not for the circumstances, Martha could have laughed at the face the Doctor was giving her. "Well we got lucky-this time. She still lives here, but her mum said she's at the library. She gave he directions."

"Ohhh I love libraries. All those books, all that knowledge-and nothing bad ever happens in libraries!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Well let's get going, shall we? Lead the way, Martha Jones!"

* * *

><p>She had settled into a corner nook by the window, trying to escape. For a library, it was awfully loud. But it was her fault-she was the one that had chosen to come here on Saturday, their busiest day.<p>

The sunlight that streamed through the window felt good, and she was a nice distance away from the clacking of keyboard keys from the old, dusty dinosaur desktops and the children shrieking from the kids' section. She guessed after all these years, the librarians had just given up on enforcing the rules around here. Not that she blamed them-the library was much less a place to come to read and soak up knowledge, and more a place to come use the free internet and for busy parents to drop off their kids when they didn't want to pay a baby sitter.

Not that the lack of peace was keeping her from working-she knew that even in dead silence these calculations wouldn't make any more sense to her. She let out a frustrated sigh and set the laptop on the floor, pressing her back to the wall and closing her eyes.

This makes no sense-what am I doing wrong? She could go back over her work, make sure the numbers were all written correctly, but she had already done that, a million times. All of her numbers were correct, all the decimal points in the right places, and still...nothing.

She was reaching back down to pick the laptop up, when her arm brushed against something in the pocket of her sweater. She was confused for a moment, until she remembered what it was.

She took the object gently from her pocket, and laid it across her knee. It was a simple golden bracelet, with her name etched across the front. She was wearing it the day she came home from the hospital after her accident, and although she had never asked her parents about it, she just assumed it had been a gift from them before the accident. From that day on, she had always carried it with her. Of course now her wrist was too big for her to wear it, but she always tucked it away, safely in her pocket for all these years. She didn't know why-perhaps subconsciously she thought of it as a good luck charm.

She scooped the bracelet into her hand and put it back into her sweater pocket, intent of trying to go over the calculations once more, except there were two people in the next aisle over that insisted on whispering-or what they thought was whispering.

"She has dark hair? This library is full of girls with dark hair!" This voice was female, and distinctly British.

"What-did you expect me to just keep a photo of her with me? I told you this might not even work!" This voice-male. She wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but they weren't exactly keeping their voices down. She tried to tune them out, squinting her eyes at the numbers.

It was the female's turn. "I know-I know! We just...we just have to keep looking! Young girl, seventeen or eighteen, with dark hair."

That was it-there was no way she could study like this. "Excuse me!" Hope called rather rudely to the two unseen strangers in the aisle in front of the window.

A young woman and a man poked their heads out. He was dressed rather strangely-he had a long brown coat on top of a pin strip suit. And what were on his feet-were those white Converses?

"Sorry, but can you keep it down just a bit? I'm kinda working on a science project over here." _Yeah-"kinda" is right, Hope._

At the mention of science, the strangely dressed man broke into a wide, almost unnerving smile. "Ahh science! I do love science? What kind of project?"

He invited himself over, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed to his chest and looking down at her papers intently.

"Doctor-we don't have time?" The British woman seemed like she was in a hurry.

A Doctor? Great-maybe he could make some sense of her calculations and why they weren't coming together. "It's time travel-I know it sounds silly, but I thought maybe I could make some kind of sense of it." She said it rather sheepishly, thinking he might laugh.

"Time travel? Oh I love time travel! Let me see what you've got!" He took the papers out of her hand before she could say anything more. He took a pair of glasses from his pocket and slid them on his nose, glancing over the papers rather quickly.

"Yeah-I've been referencing Einstein's book about the theory of time travel, but when I try to do the math myself it comes out all...wrong." She watched his face intently, seeing if he would crack a smile at her endeavors.

"Einstein! That old goat couldn't figure out time travel if he was given a step-by-step manual!" The Doctor laughed. "That old cheat wasn't as smart as everyone makes him out to be. He stole those figures from me-but what he could never understand is time travel is more than just a bunch of numbers put in the right place, with the right decimal points and the right operations. It's so, so much more than that."

Hope was caught offguard-this man was speaking like he had met Einstein. He had to be joking. A smile spread across her face at his preposterous words-of course he was joking! But he had gotten her a bit curious now. "What is it then-beyond just the numbers?"

"Oh it's courage and imagination and wisdom. See that's your problem-you've got your numbers down, but like Einstein, you've never experienced it. You'll never understand it until you've traveled beyond the stars, and met the people who you've only seen in the history books." He finished with a wink, at which his friend chimed in.

"Alright Doctor-we best be going, now." He had seen that look in his eye, and knew what he was thinking, but now was defintely not the time for joy rides.

"Guess you're right Martha Jones." He looked back down at Hope and extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet you-maybe you'll be lucky enough to experience time travel for yourself one day."

Even though his answer wasn't scientific and logical, he had said something she hadn't even thought about. Courage and imagination-she hadn't even added those things into the equation, but why not? A much as she loved science, she liked the thought that not everything in the universe boiled down to math. "You too, Doctor. My name is-" Her words were cut short. As she had reached up to shake his hand, her bracelet had decided to make an escape attempt from her pocket, and landed soundlessly on the thinly carpeted floor.

The Doctor reached down, expecting to pick up some knick-knack or other that she had dropped. But as his eye found it, the thin, golden band with the sunlight gleaming off of it, turned out to be, at that moment, the most important object in the universe.

_He took her hand then, and as they walked toward the big blue box, the hooded figure called to him. When he turned, her father pointed to her wrist._

_He nodded, knowing what her father wanted him to do._

Only, he didn't do it. He wanted to leave her with something-some relic, even if she didn't know what it was, that would always connect her to who she had once been.

He picked it up, turning it over slowly in his fingers. When he read over the name that had been etched in the gold, it was like a bolt of lightning striking him in the head.

_Hope._

His eyes met hers, and all of the sudden it was blatantly obvious. Her skin, her dark hair, her hazel eyes-her mother's eyes, staring him right in the face. So obvious, in fact, that he felt daft for not knowing who she was the second that he saw her.

"You're her."


	7. Do You Trust Me?

His words confused her just a bit. "Umm-do you mean the name on the bracelet? Yeah, I'm Hope," she said, taking it from him and slipping it back in her pocket. "Thank you for your help."

Martha was staring wide eyed at her, very aware of what was going on. "Doctor-you're saying this is her?"

When the Doctor nodded, Hope started to feel a bit nervous, and the snippet of conversation she had heard between them earlier flooded her mind. They had been searching for a young girl, seventeen or eighteen, with dark hair.

The Doctor nodded to Martha without taking his eyes from Hope. This was going to be the difficult part.

"Listen, Hope-you don't know us, but we know who you are-er, rather who you were." The Doctor sat on the ground and pulled his knees up, making him have to look up to talk to her.

"Who are you people?" Hope had to fight to keep her voice down. This was entirely too wierd for her-was this some kind of stupid prank?

It was Martha's turn to chime in. "Hope, my name is Martha Jones, and this is the Doctor. I know-it's all a bit odd. I thought that same thing when I met the Doctor, but you have to trust us. Is there somewhere we can go-we just want to talk to you."

Hope knew she should feel frightened-they were two people she had never seen before in her life, talking to her like they knew who she was. But when she looked at the man called The Doctor, she felt...calm. It was an unsettling peace, that seemed to rest in her bones. She didn't know him, but he didn't scare her.

"Alright...there's a patio, out behind the library," Hope found herself saying. They just wanted to talk-what could talking hurt?

"Thank you, and we don't want to hurt you. We just want to talk." The Doctor stood and gave Hope room to lead them out to the patio.

He leaned forward in the hard, iron back chair. How do you tell someone that the life they have isn't really theirs? He remembered being chased by the Family of Blood, how John Smith was so scared and so reluctant to open the watch...

But he finally did. That was the important thing.

"So...what are we talking about?" Hope rested her palms on her knees, staring at the cracked, weathered brick of the patio-she wasn't scared, but nervous, and curious, and anxious all at once.

"Hope, what if I told you that your life wasn't always...this way?" The Doctor finally began to speak.

"Depends on what you by 'this way.'" She tilted her head slightly, though not quite making eye contact. "What do you mean, Doctor?"

He was forced to take a deep breath. This was it-that was when a completely innocent girl got hurt. This was when a promise was broken. But this was also the moment that would possibly give them strength.

"Hope, you're not from Earth-where you're from is a far, far planet called Gallifrey."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, but when they did Hope just couldn't help herself. She began to laugh-she knew they couldn't be serious.

"Ok-I get it! Harold Saxon and all that alien stuff. Hilarious, but I really have to finish my project." She was still laughing as she started to get up, but Martha grasped her hand.

"I know it sounds completely mad, Hope. I thought the Doctor was a bit of a loon when I first met him too, but you have to trust us!"

"So you're telling me I'm secretly an alien?"

Martha nodded, not knowing what else to tell her. She knew how crazy it sounded-how would she expect someone else, a young girl no doubt, to ever believe it?

"Your species-we're called Time Lords, and were an ancient race. We're from a distant planet called Gallifrey," The Doctor added.

"Wait-so you're an alien too? Where's your space ship then?" Hope asked smugly as she crossed her arms to her chest. She would give them two more minutes to play their little game, then she definitely had to get back to her project.

"Weeelll, that's a bit of a long story, but trust me-we have one! The TARDIS-bigger on the inside and all that."

"Just touch his chest-that's another thing with your species. Two hearts," Martha interjected.

"Brilliant idea Martha!" The Doctor exclaimed, then held open his coat. "Go on then, Hope! I don't bite!"

She rolled her eyes, but figured she had no choice. They wouldn't leave her alone obviously, so she reached out and put her hands to his chest.

And what she felt was something she never would have expected.

She jerked her hands away as she felt the powerful double beating of two hearts, one on either side of his chest. Obviously they weren't your run-of-the-mill pranksters, but a couple of people who were totally out of their minds.

"Okay-this is just too wierd for me!" Hope ran across the cracked patio, obviously shaken from what she had just felt.

"Hope-wait-!"

"Listen, I don't know who you people are," Hope growled as she whirled around. "But leave me alone! This isn't funny anymore!"

This encounter did not go as planned, and The Doctor saw their chance slipping away. He tried to think of something to say, something that would at least make her stop. Martha turned to look at him, panic flooding her eyes.

_No, no, no-you can't go! Not when the entire human race needs you. _That was the very second he made the decision that the whole of human existence was worth the life of one human girl.

"Your mum and dad!" He nearly screamed at her. "What if your mum and dad told you the truth? Would you believe us then?"

At the mention of her parents, Hope turned on her heel. Her parents-why would they bring her parents up? They had her attention now.

"You were eight years old Hope-eight years old when I brought you here. I didn't want to come after you, believe me. This was never the plan, but we need you now." The Doctor was pleading with her now. She had to understand-she had to come with them.

Hope took a step back toward them, then another. "Okay then-let's just say that, hypothetically, I believe your little alien story. Which I don't," she quickly added, "but let's jsut say that I did. Why did you bring me to Earth, and why do you need me now, after all these years?"

The Doctor shared a smile with Martha-at least she was willing to listen now, even if she still didn't believe them. That was a start. "On our home planet, there was a war. You were only eight years old. We were attacked by a race called the Daleks-weak creatures encased in metal. I promised your father I would keep you safe, so I brought you here-"

"In a big blue box..." Hope finished his sentence as if she was in a trance. She wasn't looking at the Doctor or Martha, but past them.

"Yes, that's right..." The Doctor spoke, but his voice had faded out as Hope was suddenly barraged with her dreams, or were they memories?

Dreams, memories..._I can't_..

_"Exterminate! Exterminate!"_

_She didn't know which was more terrifying, the fire that raged above their heads, or that one word which ecchoed out across the grass. _

_So many familiar faces, all strewn across the ground. No time to mourn, no time to cry or pay tribute to fallen loved ones. The flames rained down, and for once the beautiful orange skies above her homeland weren't so beautiful..._

"Martha-grab her!"

Hope had collapsed under the weight of her mind. Martha reached out, catching her shoulders just moments before she would have hit the pavement.

"She's still breathing, pulse is still strong. Help me get her to a chair." Martha had launched into doctor mode, holding her fingers to Hope's throat.

They picked her up and sat her gently in the nearest chair. "Her memory of the TARDIS-it stems from dreams, doesn't it? John Smith, he had them too. He drew pictures in a journal," Martha whispered as she carefully ran her hand along Hope's cheeks.

The Doctor nodded. "It's the only logical explanation-she wouldn't actually remember anything..."

* * *

><p><em>When he turned back to her, she was sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up to her chest, with her head leaned against the closed doors.<em>

_"I'm never going to see them again, am I?" She whispered. She knew she didn't even have to ask. There was this sinking feeling inside her, like she was hanging off the edge of a cliff. She was screaming for someone to help her up, but there was no one there._

_Even with him standing so close to her, she had never felt more alone than in that blue box that was so much bigger on the inside. She was just a child-children weren't meant to feel this way, were they?_

_He punched a few buttons, making sure to send them off before he came to her, kneeling down so that he was eye level with her._

_He was smiling-after everything that had just happened, what could he have possibly found to smile about?_

_"They loved you, Hope, more than anything else in the entire universe. That is why you are sitting here now, with me."_

_"You didn't answer my question..." She peered up at him over the tops of her knees. She could cry now-she was in a time machine, and had all the time in the world to cry, but she couldn't._

_He entwined his fingers with hers, and rested his chin on her knee. They sat there like that for a few minutes, in complete silence. _

_"I don't know," he finally whispered. Then, a moment later he asked, "Do you trust me?"_

_She thought for a moment, but she already knew the answer. This man was her father's best friend, and she would follow him anywhere. She nodded._

_A tear must have fallen from her eye, because he wiped his thumb across her cheek. "Would you like to help me drive this thing?"_

_She nodded again, only this time there was a faint trace of a smile across her face. His gift to her..._

Someone was calling her name, but they were so far away. It was dark-no, wait, it was growing lighter. Someone held her chin in their hand.

For the second time today, she could feel wetness on her cheeks. Two figures in front of her-the two figures from her dream? No, no-that Doctor fellow, and that lady-what was her name? Oh yeah-Martha...

She blinked her eyes, coming back down from wherever it was that she had just gone. The Doctor was kneeling down in front of her, holding her hands gently, while Martha was standing behind him with Hope's chin in her hand. Just like the man in her dreams...

"They're just...just dreams...after my accident," she whispered, trying to shake the overwhelming urge to collapse to the ground.

He squeezed her hands comfortingly. "Those are memories Hope, bleeding through from a different part of you."

"Why can't I remember them-when I'm awake?" Her head was throbbing now.

"That part of you, the Time Lord, is hidden away. I had to protect you, let you live on Earth as a normal human. I told you that coming to get you was never my intention."

She didn't want to believe him-it sounded so preposterous. Aliens and time machines-those were fairy tales in children's books. They just didn't exist...

"So my mom and dad-they're not my real parents?" Her voice caught in her throat a bit. It was a hard thing to think about.

"No, not by birth."

Suddenly Hope stood up, only a little too fast. She grabbed the back of the chair to steady herself, knowing what she had to do.

"You said my parents would tell me the truth, then that's what I want. I need to hear it from them."

"Okay, fair enough," he nodded. "And then what Hope?"

As she looked at his face, a peace settled in her heart. She didn't feel afraid or nervous, or even anxious. Maybe somewhere, deep, deep in her mind, she already knew the truth. Maybe, in her subconscous, she recognized him, even with a new face.

"And then I'll come with you."


	8. I Can't Make Any Promises

She walked several feet in front of them, with her head dropped to her chest. She didn't have to watch where she was going-she had tread this route so many times it was burned into her mind.

But this time, it seemed...different.

_You're meant for greater things than just the four walls of a high school chemistry classroom._

The words of her chemistry teacher came back to her. Greater things...

She closed her eyes and tried to think back on all those years of dreams-the same ones nearly every night. She tried to force her mind to sharpen the faces, but they were still hazy. Two figures...

The Doctor and Martha walked behind her. He studied her quietly, not wanting to disturb her peace by talking to her. This might be the last peace she would have for a while...

So they walked in silence like that, for two blocks.

It wasn't until they were in front of Hope's house that she stopped. For the first time fear tickled her heart. "Do you ever get the feeling that your whole life is about to change?"

The Doctor came from behind her, placing his hand gently on her shoulder. "Everyday."

* * *

><p>Hope sat at the table across from Martha and the Doctor, while her mother set a pan of cup cakes down on the kitchen table in front of them.<p>

"It's not everyday that Hope brings friends to the house. Are you and your brother both from London, Martha?"

"Yes ma'am," Martha answered as she reached for one of the cupcakes.

"Have you been keeping up with the aliens?" Her mother asked. She took her place beside Hope, sipping coffee from a mug.

The Doctor saw a small opportunity just then. "Do you believe in aliens, Annette?" He leaned over, watching her carefully.

Anette turned to make sure they were the only ones in the kitchen, then turned back. "Well, I don't know really what I believe, but I do know there is something out there. There has to be! All those planets and moons and other galaxies-we can't be the only ones!"

"Of course not-and I think you're right-"

"Mom, am I adopted?" The question was so brisk and unexpected that the entire table went silent. Hope had barely spoken a word since she had come home with The Doctor and Martha, but she didn't feel she could wade through all of the small talk. The question had been burning her mind, and she had to have an answer.

Annette's eyes were wide, and she looked away toward the living room, trying to hide the shock on her face. "Hope, why would-"

"Mom, please. I just want the truth. Please just tell me the truth." Hope reached for her mom's hand, trying to let her know what she wouldn' t be mad.

"Jason, can you come in here please!" Anette called through the living room to her husband, who was in his study. When he emerged in the kitchen doorway, he could sense that something was amiss.

"Everyone all right in here?"

"Jason, Hope would like to ask us a question." Her voice had shrank from cheery to somber, and her hands seemed to be shaking. But what really worried Hope was the fact that her mother wouldn't look her in the eye.

He sat down slowly, judging by his wife's actions that this question wasn't going to be an easy one. "Ok, what's the question sweetheart?"

"Dad, I want the truth. Are you and mom my birth parents?"

His first instinct was to lie, but he didn't. He knew that this issue was going to come up eventually. In fact him and Annette had already been discussing how they were going to bring it up to her. "Hope, can we talk about this when we don't have any guests?"

"No, dad. I want to hear it from you, right now."

Jason leaned back in his chair, giving an apologetic look to both Martha and the Doctor, then shaking his head. "No Hope, your mother and I aren't your birth parents." He looked down, seemingly ashamed of what he was going to say next. "They...died."

Annette stood and grabbed Hope around her shoulders, hugging her. "We were going to tell you, eventually. We just didn't know when the best time would be..." She started to cry.

"Jason, Annette..." The Doctor spoke their names and they turned to look at him, a bit embarassed to tell such news in front of their guests.

"I'm not trying to intrude, but do you remember when Hope first came to live with you?"

Jason nodded, looking across the table at his daughter and wife. "We got you when you were eight years old. You and your parents had been in an accident, and they died. You survived, but the brain damage caused you to forget everything, including the accident." He gave his explanation carefully and slowly so Hope could digest everything.

"That's what Hope's uncle told you, wasn't it? That man with the long hair and green coat?"

Jason and Annette suddenly looked up at the Doctor, startled. "How did you know about him?

"I'm going to tell you something right now, something very important." The Doctor looked from from one to the other. "It is going to be difficult to understand, but its true. The man-the one with the long hair and the green coat, that brought her to your front door...was me."

"You think this is funny?" A pang of anger flashed through Jason as he stood abruptly, staring the Doctor down.

"Hope is special-very, very special." The Doctor stood as well, leaning over with both hands planted firmly on the table. "The man that brought her to you-his name was John Smith, wasn't it?"

Annette suddenly gasped, her voice barely above a whisper. "How could you have known that? We never told anyone-no one in our whole family knows the truth about how we got Hope..."

"Annette, listen to me," The Doctor knew he could get through to her, even if he couldn't get through that thick-skulled husband of hers. "You said you knew there was something out there, and you're right. There's tons of things out there, and I'm one of them."

"Get out here-both of you. Now!" Jason screamed, reaching over to grab the Doctor's shoulder.

"No dad-he's telling the truth!" Hope slammed her fist on the table, so out of character for her. The talking ceased at once, and everyone turned to look at her. "I believe him-I don't know why, but it makes sense to me. I can't explain..."

"Hope, this man is clearly out of his mind!"

Now it was Martha's turn to interject. "Mr. Dixon, what if we gave you proof?"

"And what kind of proof would that be?" He asked with a bit of hostility.

"This." Martha lifted the Doctor's sleeves, revealing the Vortex Manipulator, to which the Doctor seemed delighted. "Oh that's just brilliant Martha Jones-I knew there was a reason I brought you with me! I didn't even think about that!"

"And what's that?" He asked, now seeming just a little interested.

"My kind-we're called Time Lords. We're an anicent race, much older than planet Earth. I travel through space and time, but my time machine got stolen, so I have to use this little device, called a vortex manipulator." Without warning the Doctor pressed a button, and within the blink of an eye the two vanished into thin eye.

The three of them were stunned, eyes fixated on the empty spot of air where just a second ago two bodies had stood.

Annette covered her mouth. "Oh my-Jason, they were telling the truth!" But Jason couldn't answer her-he couldn't utter a single word. Aliens, space ships, time travel-it was just fairy tales and fodder created for science fiction novelists and cheesy movies. He prided himself on being a rational man, but even he couldn't deny the thing that had just happened right in front of his eyes.

But before he could form a coherent thought, the space became occupied again, by a smiling Time Lord and his companion. "See?"

At that moment, Hope knew how she should react. She should be amazed and bedazzled-time travel was real! She should have felt excitement and wonder, she should have been able to see all the possibilities that one little "vanishing act" had opened up. That was how she should have reacted-that was how any normal human being would have reacted.

If only Hope had been a normal human being...

Fear sliced into her like the leather of a whip biting into her flesh. This wasn't about travelling through time, or aliens or anything like that. This was about everything changing-nothing was as she knew it.

"What do you think, Hope?" The Doctor's question forced her mind to come back to the table, where her parents looked as if they had seen a ghost-well, an alien.

"Why'd you come back here?" It wasn't the exact reaction that he was expecting, but he guessed it was better than her running from the table in terror.

"There's a...problem. You're the best chance we've got." The Doctor leaned across the table to lay his hand atop Hope's, feeling her shaking. "I promise Hope, I didn't want to have to come. All I wanted for you was to have a normal, human life here. I wanted you to be safe and happy. I'm so sorry." He spoke gently to her, like she was a frightened puppy and he was trying to coax her out of hiding.

A problem. For Hope a problem was being late for school, or not knowing which college she should attend. Problems didn't include aliens and vortex manipulators.

"I can't make any promises, but I'll do what I can..." She almost couldn't believe what she was saying, and neither could her parents.

"Hope-you can't possibly be thinking of going with them!" Her father screamed across the table.

"This whole planet is at stake!" The Doctor didn't want to reveal the nature of their "problem", but her stubborn father was giving him no choice. "Another of our kind-another Time Lord-will destroy this planet and every living thing on it!" He growled at Jason. "Is that what you want Mr. Dixon? The slaughter of your entire family?

For a moment Hope's father was flabbergasted. "Of course not-"

"Then understand that your daughter might be this planet's saving grace!"

"Dad, it's my decision. I'm going." It was an odd contrast, the Doctor's screaming against the quietness of Hope's voice. The biggest decision she had ever made, said in the softest of tones.

The look on her father's face nearly broke her heart as he turned to her. Desperation clung to his face as he pleaded with his daughter. "Sweetheart, you don't even know what you'll have to do-"

"I gave him my word, dad. I told him if I heard the truth from you and mom, then I would go with him. I can't go back on it now."

Her father looked down at her mother, who gave him a nod. They knew this day would come, when they would tell their daughter that she was adopted and she would have to make her own decisions, only aliens never figured into it.

Her father looked back to her, then motioned for her to follow him as he started in the direction of his study. "Come with me, Hope. There's something I want to give you before you go."


End file.
